The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty is one of the oldest and most respected libertarian journals in the United States.[1] It is published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). It started as a digest-sized monthly study journal; it currently appears 10 times per year and is a larger-sized magazine. FEE was founded shortly after the end of World War II in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, who served as its president until his death in 1983. The Foundation was the first organization established after the war to present the principles of free markets, limited government, private property, the rule of law, and libertarian philosophy and at the same time to oppose the many government interventionist programs introduced during the 1930s, especially under Roosevelt's New Deal, and which had multiplied during World War II.

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History

During FEE's early years, it published essays, pamphlets and booklets, all dealing with some aspect of libertarian philosophy, by both classical liberals of the past, such as Frédéric Bastiat and Andrew Dickson White, as well as the early work of contemporary authors such as Milton Friedman, George Stigler and Ayn Rand.[2] In 1955, FEE introduced a quarterly, Ideas on Liberty, which in January 1956 was merged with The Freeman, a bi-weekly free-market oriented news magazine which had been published in New York City since 1950. As the market for free market journals was limited in the 1950s, it ran into financial problems and in 1956 was taken over by FEE, an educational, tax-exempt Foundation. At the time of its take-over, it was transformed from a bi-weekly into a monthly titled The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty.

The Freeman is widely considered to be an important forerunner to the conservative publication National Review magazine, which was founded in 1955, and which from its inception included many of the same contributing editors.[4]

FEE's Freeman is published monthly. During its more than half century of life it has published articles by economists, businessmen, professors, teachers, statesmen (domestic and foreign), students, housewives, free-lance writers, and budding libertarians. Many of its authors have gone on to become noted authors, teachers, and founders of other libertarian organizations. It continues to discuss current economic and governmental issues from the same pro-private property, free market, limited government, libertarian philosophy which sparked the founding of FEE and all its publications. Ronald Reagan was photographed reading The Freeman on an airplane when he was running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.